Some have it good-some not so great.No matter how bad you think you have it, you are better off than some. .."I complained because I had no commercial website...and then I met a man who had no blog"...How could it get any worse that that? Bummer...

Saturday, November 05, 2005

It Is No Secret What God Can Do...

I got an e-mail a few days ago with this story in it. I had sung the song, "It Is No Secret," at a jam session and a lady remembered it and sent this to me. It is basically the way this song came to be written by Stuart Hamblin.

It's a beautiful song with wonderful sentiment and I enjoy singing it.

There will, without a doubt, be someone who will question the veracity of this missile, claiming the story isn't accurate, but that is beside the point.

Some make silly claims as to just when and why Stuart wrote it but I know it's basically accurate. I spoke to Billy and the Duke and they say it's how it happened so don't believe any nay-sayers. Just enjoy the story.

Back in the 50's there was a well known radiohost/comedian/song writer in Hollywood namedStuart Hamblin who was noted for his drinking,womanizing, partying, etc.

One of his bigger hits at the time was"I won't go hunting with you Jake,but I'll go chasing women."

One day, along came a young preacher holdinga tent revival. Hamblin had him on his radio showpresumably to poke fun at him.

In order to gather more material for his show,Hamblin showed up at one of the revival meetings.

Early in the service the preacher announced,"There is one man in this audience who is a big fake."There were probably others who thought the same thing,but Hamblin was convinced that he was the one the preacherwas talking about (some would call that conviction)but he was having none of that.

Still the words continued to haunt him until a coupleof nights later he showed up drunk at the preacher'shotel door around 2AM demanding that the preacherpray for him!

But the preacher refused, saying, "This is between you and Godand I'm not going to get in the middle of it."

But he did invite Stuart in and they talked untilabout 5 AM at which point Stuart dropped to hisknees and with tears, cried out to God.

But that is not the end of the story.Stuart quit drinking, quit chasing women,quit everything that was 'fun.' Soon he beganto lose favor with the Hollywood crowd.

He was ultimately fired by the radio station whenhe refused to accept a beer company as a sponsor.

Hard times were upon him. He tried writing a coupleof "Christian" songs but the only one that hadmuch success was "This Old House",written for his friend Rosemary Clooney.

As he continued to struggle, a long time friendnamed John took him aside and told him,"All your troubles started when you 'got religion,'Was it worth it all?"Stuart answered simply, "Yes."

Then his friend asked, "You liked your booze so much,don't you ever miss it?" And his answer was,"No." John then said, "I don't understand howyou could give it up so easily."

And Stuart's response was, "It's no big secret.All things are possible with God."To this John said, "That's a catchy phrase.You should write a song about it."

And as they say, "The rest is history."

The song Stuart wrote was "It Is No Secret."

"It is no secret what God can do.What He's done for others, He'll do for you.

With arms wide open, He'll welcome you.It is no secret, what God can do...."

By the way... the friend was John Wayne.And the young preacher who refused to pray for Stuart Hamblin?...That was Billy Graham.